Additional efforts to find conditions for a high yield conversion of reticuline (or derivative) to salutaridine (or derivative) have not been successful, however N-acyl-4-methoxy-N-norreticuline derivatives, which can be readily converted to either the pavinan or isopavinan carbon skeleton are now readily available from this work. A simple, high yielding optical resolution of (+)-N-norreticaline has been developed. Aporphine formation has been largely suppressed in the phenolic oxidation of N-carbethoxy-N-norreticuline to N-carbethoxy-N-nor-salutaridine. Efforts at total synthesis of codeine and morphine are now concentrated on a modified Grewe approach which involves 4-hydroxy-6-keto-17-methylmorphinan as a key intermediate.